Barre. Ballet. Pilates. Yoga.
They all have something in common: they’re low-impact on our joints, but high-impact on overall health.
But still, people lean towards the cult-like HIIT or boot camp classes, because we believe they are more “bang for your buck” when it comes to squeezing a workout into our busy schedules.
Barre is often overlooked and seen as ‘too easy’, but so many of us are missing out on the incredible benefits.
We’re going to breakdown the top 5 benefits in hopes you run to grab your highest high socks and plie your way to a better mood.
But first, what is barre anyways?
“Barre is a form of exercise that employs movements commonly found in ballet, pilates, and yoga. Many barre moves involve classic ballet techniques such as plié and relevé to work out your entire body, often with the aid of a ballet barre. These high-intensity, low-impact movements target muscle groups with small bursts of intense, isometric movements and dynamic stretching”.
– source. Sounds easy right?! Haha.
5 benefits of doing Barre:
- It is super gentle on your joints: Our in-house barre instructor, Merideth Kahn, was diagnosed in 2017 with fibromyalgia, “a disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain accompanied by fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues.” – source. So if Merideth does high impact workouts, she pays for it….big time. Which is hard for a previous Fitness Competitor and Personal Trainer. At this time, Merideth leaned into her career as a dance teacher, and used her training
by the Royal Academy of Dance Ballet Training to start teaching barre classes. She gets to teach & be gentle on her joints while reaping all the benefits of regular exercise. And she gets to help you do the same :) - Improves posture: In a world where most of us have ‘tech neck’ because we’re sitting down with our heads in our phones for an unhealthy amount of time, we could use a lot more focus on our posture. Besides the obvious shape of our spine, why is posture so important? It reduces back, neck & shoulder pain. It increases energy and self-confidence and even improves your lunge capacity! – source
- Increases flexibility: HIIT & boot camp style workouts focus a lot on flexion; shortening of the muscles. It’s one of the reasons we feel tight after if we don’t stretch. Where barre workouts focus on lengthening the muscles. Both have their place, but staying flexible is important for reducing injury. In barre, you get both!
- Reduces stress: Barre is mentally & physically challenging. It requires a lot of long holds, lactic acid build up with pulses, and focused deep breathing to engage the core. All of which release happiness chemicals & a more relaxed mental state. Plus, all that burning teaches us that we can do hard things :)
- Enhanced core & glute engagement: We can all push through a squat, but are we really engaging the muscles while doing it? Barre dials in on the focus of small supportive muscles as well as the core (pun intended) muscles that help with strength, balance and reduced back pain. The level of focus on core & glute engagement is unparalleled to any other workout style.
So what do you say?!
Want to try a barre class with Mer?
- Try a 7-DAY FREE TRIAL and book your first class today
- Rent a recorded workout here (just scroll to the bottom)
Would love to know what you think of barre in the comments below!
Move your body.
Free your mind.
Royally Fit xx
